AMA Answers #2

More of my answers to your charming questions on my "Ask Me Anything" post last week.  (And if you still want to leave a comment asking questions, you certainly may.  I'll finish up answering the rest in a couple days.)

CGrace

-What is the most difficult/hard to finish book you've ever read? Did you end up getting through it?

Hmm.  Probably The Iliad.  I did finish it, but it took me over a month, and I was not particularly enthusiastic about it.

-What are you primarily- a reader who writes, or a writer who reads? Somebody asked me this recently and I thought it was a fascinating question.

That IS a fascinating question!  I think I am a reader who writes.  I tend to write books because I myself want to read them, and no one else has written them yet, so I have to.

-If you were stranded on a desert island with one book character, who would you select?

Robinson Crusoe.  He's so clever and resourceful!  And also has remarkable faith.

(Yes, I know this wasn't the most faithful adaptation ever.
HOWEVER!  Pierce Brosnan is always a good idea.)

-Favorite Ice Cream Flavor? :)

Mint chocolate chip :-9


Naomi Bennet

How did you meet 'Cowboy'? :-)

We met at college, at the beginning of my sophomore year, his freshman.  We had two classes together that fall semester, Self-Defense and German.  I found him conceited and annoying, but he was friends with some of my friends, so I kept bumping into him outside classes, and once I got beneath what I had perceived to be hubris, I discovered he was intelligent, kind, and sincere, just without a great deal of social grace, shall we say.  Also, he had magnificently broad shoulders and really cute dimples :-)  And he kept showing up places where I was, like sitting by me in chapel, eating lunch with me and our mutual friends, so I got the feeling he liked me.  (He swears this was unintentional.)

During the spring semester, he asked to borrow some notes from me.  I screwed my courage to the sticking point and wrote in the margins, "If you like me so much, why don't you ask me out already?"  So he did.  We've been together ever since.  

Have you read Gone with the Wind? Like, Love or Hate?

I have.  I liked it fine, but have no great desire to read it again any time soon.  I do watch the movie every few years, though.

Have you ever visited the UK?

No, but it's on my bucket list!  I want to visit Baker Street, the Globe Theater, Stratford on Avon, interesting Jane Austen sites, something J.R.R Tolkien-related... all sorts of literary places :-)

What's your favourite Jane Austen movie?

The 1996 Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Have you seen Little Dorrit?

No :-(  I have to admit I'm not a huge Dickens fan.  However, lots of people speak so highly of that adaptation that I've added it to my to-watch list.  (Plus, Matthew Macfadyen!)

Have you ever found a note in a library book? Or written one, for that matter?

I have found all sorts of interesting things in library books, sometimes tucked in the pages, sometimes scribbled in the margins.  I've found grocery lists, old cash register receipts, and sometimes a note to someone else.  I've also read books where someone felt compelled to correct a typo, and sometimes I've found a comment or word written in, for whatever reason.  I myself Do Not Ever Write In Library Books.  I've probably accidentally left some oddment I was using as a bookmark in one at some time or other, though.  

OH!  I just remembered that after reading The Man in the Box by Mary Lois Dunn for the third or fourth time, I wrote a poem about it (I was probably 14 or so) called "To the Reader:  An Ode" (not at all a pretentious 14-year-old, you can see), copied it off on a sticky note, and stuck it inside the front cover of the book.  I used to go and check and see if it was still there when I went to the library, and for a long time, it was.

That's all for today, kiddos.  Thanks for all the fascinating questions!